1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber ribbon holding member that holds an optical fiber ribbon in which an optical connector mounted on a substrate is attached to a tip thereof, and also relates to an optical fiber ribbon holding method, an optical fiber ribbon bundle, and a holding member fixture.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, in the case where a plurality of optical fiber ribbons are held in a laminated state, conventionally, a heat shrinkable tube is used as the optical fiber ribbon holding member that holds the optical fiber ribbons (hereinafter referred to as the ribbons according to the case), in which an optic path change type optical connector, which is mounted on an photoelectric composite substrate, is attached to a tip of the optical fiber ribbon.
In a case where the optical fiber ribbons are laminated and held by the heat shrinkable tube, when the heat shrinkable tube covers the laminated optical fiber ribbons and heated at a high temperature of 100 degree or more, the heat shrinkable tube is shrunk to tighten and hold the laminated optical fiber ribbons.
As described above, the optical fiber ribbons held by the heat shrinkable tube are fixed at a device bedplate side by fixing a part of the heat shrinkable tube with, for example, a holding member fixture for fixing the holding member that is fixed at the periphery portion of the photoelectric composite substrate.
Each of the optical connectors attached to the tip of each of the optical fiber ribbons must be positioned and arranged on the photoelectric composite substrate accurately. However, when the position of the optical fiber ribbons that are laminated and held by the heat shrinkable tube is misaligned in a longitudinal direction, the optical connector at the tip of the misaligned optical fiber ribbon is misaligned with the position to be mounted on the substrate. As a result, the accurate positioning and arrangement cannot be performed.
Once the heat shrinkable tube has been shrunk, the heat shrinkable tube cannot be returned to the original state. Therefore, when the optical fiber ribbons are shipped as being held by the heat shrinkable tube at the time of shipping, there is a problem that a user cannot move and readjust the position of each of the optical fiber ribbons to the proper position.
Meanwhile, as described above, it is required to heat the heat shrinkable tube to a high temperature in order to hold the optical fiber ribbons by the heat shrinkable tube, so there is also a problem that the user who receives the product cannot easily perform the operation.
Accordingly, an optical fiber ribbon holding member is desired in which the heating operation by the user is not required and readjustment of the position of the optical fiber ribbons can be performed.